Police: Pa. man claims booze on breath a week old

ALTOONA(AP) — Police say a central Pennsylvania man arrested for public drunkenness when he tried to report his cellphone had been stolen claimed that the booze officers smelled on his breath was a week old.

Altoona police didn’t buy that, and say they also found brass knuckles, a small amount of marijuana and a pipe on 19-year-old John Ozio, before they decided to arrest him on Dec. 23. Ozio’s public defender could not immediately be reached for comment.

He remained in the Blair County Prison on Thursday, awaiting a Feb. 8 preliminary hearing on charges of carrying an illegal weapon, marijuana possession, public drunkenness, underage drinking and criminal mischief.

Police say Ozio claimed someone planted the marijuana pipe in his backpack and that he carried the brass knuckles as “protection from being jumped.”